Using the tools of democracy<\/b><\/p>\n
I voted today.<\/p>\n
Like all elections, I stuffed my ballot in the box and a little voice said \u00ef\u00bf\u00bdIs that it? People have died for this?\u00ef\u00bf\u00bd<\/p>\n
Elections are always anti-climactic. Thirty-five days of being bombarded by messages and courted by spin leading to one moment \u00ef\u00bf\u00bd barely one second \u00ef\u00bf\u00bd when we mark an X in a circle and are done with it, somehow unsure if our singular contribution matters.<\/p>\n
Many Canadians will not vote today precisely because they feel too small to make a difference, even in an election like this where small margins will tilt the balance of power. We labour under the misconception that voting is all there is to democracy, that it is the fundamental act. To lose faith in the power of the franchise then is to let go of the last apparent connection to the levers of power. For most people, to quit voting is to give in. It is the last act of capitulation before the clamouring politicians. <\/p>\n
As the old adage goes \u00ef\u00bf\u00bdif voting could change the system, it would be illegal.\u00ef\u00bf\u00bd I happen to believe that voting IS important. But more important than voting is engagement because that adage is true: systemic change has nothing to do with voting. It has to do with citizens banding together to improve society regardless of government. Democracy is not about the freedom to vote \u00ef\u00bf\u00bd it is about the freedom and responsibility to act. It may be in fact that voting is the last freedom to be taken away \u00ef\u00bf\u00bd witness the former USSR or much of present day China. Autocratic and totalitarian, these states nevertheless preserved the sanctity of voting even while all other societal freedoms had been stripped away. <\/p>\n
No, democracy is not about voting, and democratic societies do not advance, thrive and evolve because people vote every few years. They evolve because people use the tools of democracy to create societies that thrive: free speech, freedom of association, freedom to move. These are the tools of civil society. <\/p>\n
Creating and maintaining a truly open and democratic society is founded in the individual responsibility of people to \u00ef\u00bf\u00bdlive in truth\u00ef\u00bf\u00bd as Vaclav Havel said. I\u00ef\u00bf\u00bdve blogged this before, but it bears repeating. This is form Jonathan Schell\u00ef\u00bf\u00bds The Unconquerable World<\/I>:<\/p>\n — Schell, p.196<\/p><\/div>\n This is the way we build and maintain democratic civil society. <\/p>\n